Travels with Hok, Travel Chronicles to Various Destination all over the Globe,

II: Samburu National Reserve

To make the 350 km-long drive to Samburu Lodge in the Park, we left Nairobi at 8:15 in the morning. Most of the time the roads were good, but there were still a number of damaged sections, which had not been repaired. Our group was split in two cars, with the second car driving about a mile behind the first car. The drivers kept in radio contact with each other. There were two reasons for this. By staying well away behind, on the dusty roads the second car would not inhale too much of the dust sprayed up by the first car. And in case one of the cars was stopped by brigands, the second car would be away from the action and this driver can then radio for help.

On this long drive we stopped twice at tourist souvenir shops to visit the restrooms and also to look at the merchandise for sale. There were no prices posted, so you had to muster all your bargaining skills, if you were interested. They start in the stratosphere; the asking price for simple place-mats made from banana leaves was $30 each. After some haggling Berkshire Hathaway bought some for $5 each. You can probably get them in a Dollar Store in the USA for $1 each or less. The natives who made them probably didn’t get more than 10 cents for each of them, if they were lucky.

The road went through Nanyuki, the town smack on the equator, and then there was the little dusty town called Isiola. On the right, in the distance, were the long range of Blue Mountains and behind them the imposing, 17,000 feet high, snow-capped Mt. Kenya, straddling the equator.

As soon as we entered the Park, the roads were not that well maintained; many of them were just dust roads. It was 2:15 p.m. when we arrived at our destination, the Samburu Lodge. Lunch was waiting for us. It was extensive and great, served in the dining room, which had a roof, but was otherwise open to catch the breeze.

Lunch was accompanied by loud and noisy commentaries from a group of monkeys in the trees outside, obviously on the quality of the food served. One especially brazen guy swooped inside and swiped a bottle of ketchup. He did have trouble opening the lid. But he did succeed after some time.

left: Trying to open the bottle of stolen ketchup in Samburu National Reserve.

The Samburu Lodge itself is on the banks of the Samburu river. It was a two-story apartment style complex and we were told to keep the doors closed and locked, because the monkeys will come in. And if they do, you may expect them to ransack your luggage for food. Samburu’s claim to fame is that this was one of the two areas where Joy Adamson, the author of “Born Free”, raised Elsa the Lioness.

The park attracts many animals because of the Uaso Nyiro River, (meaning “brown water”), which is full of crocodiles. When we were there, we saw all three of the big cats, i.e., the lion, the cheetah, and the leopard. In the park we also saw lots of elephants, buffaloes, camels, and hippos. There were Grevy’s zebras, Grant’s gazelles, reticulated giraffes, Beisa Oryx, waterbucks, Rothschild giraffes, geranuks, which are long-necked giraffe antelopes, who stand on their hind legs to feed, and Dik-diks, which are little deer about a foot high. And many more.

The place is also an ornithologist paradise. They say there are more than 360 species of birds in the park. I am not much of an ornithologist, but I was impressed by the wide range, from small colorful birds; the hen-sized secretary bird; to the ugly vultures, sitting in the trees waiting for meat from kills by the larger predators.

right: Safari buses surrounding some lionesses

After a short rest, we had our afternoon game drive. In the modified 10-passenger Land Rovers, the driver/guide was in front, then there were three rows of seats. The windows could be slid open and there were three hatches in the roof to allow the passengers to stand up and look from the top. There was a lot of open veldt around, so you can see a lot of landscape.

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We were not the only bus; there were many around and the drivers keep in contact with each other by radio to report an unusual or interesting events. Everybody then zooms in to that spot, and in this manner the visitors do get to see a lot. It is OK to stick your head through the roof, but the tourists are supposed to stay inside the car. The animals don’t seem to mind the cars at all; I suppose they consider the cars another game species; big, so you don’t want to tangle with it, but otherwise benign.

The most impressive thing of a safari was that the animals look healthy and alert. Well, if you are not alert, I suppose you get eaten up pretty fast. But these animals do not have the unhealthy pallor and the resigned behavior you see in kept animals in the zoo.

These are wild animals and we stayed at a respectful distance from them.

left: A lioness had just killed a zebra. In the vicinity was another lioness with two cubs. And around the party were hyenas, Maribu storks, jackals and vultures waiting for their turn.

The next morning we left the lodge at 6:30 a.m. for an early morning game drive. Driving past the place of the kill, we saw the lioness with her two cubs leaving the kill, soon afterwards followed by the other lioness. At that time the waiting vultures and jackals pounced on the remains. The second lioness roared and ran back to chase the intruders away, but it was a useless exercise, because they would return as soon as she left again. There were lots of zebras, giraffes, and dik-diks. There was a herd of baboons on the bank of the river. And there were geranuks and several herds of elephants.

Then we went back to the lodge for breakfast. Food was good and plentiful. The weather was nice.

right: An oryx and a zebra in the veldt

Visiting a Samburu Village

Our program called for a visit to Samburu Village, where the headman welcomed us and charged us KS (Kenya Shilling) 600 (about $ 10) per person as the entry fee. The Samburu are (semi)-nomadic in nature. Their lifestyle revolves around their cattle, which is their primary source of food. Having a lot of cattle brings you up the society ladder. At regular intervals they move for better pastures. Their houses are therefore not permanent and are built mostly from local materials. Structurally they start with timber poles, which they do carry along as they move. Then they scavenge twigs and tree branches to form the walls and the roof. You can see in the picture at the top the text, behind the two maidens, the texture of the walls. For waterproofing they use as plaster a mixture of mud, cow dung, wood chips and ash. Yes, cow dung. That is why the job of building these houses fall to the women. The men don’t want to dirty their hands with smelly cow dung. Their job is to pursue the more noble calling of taking care of the cattle. Cows are worth KS 2000-3000 and a good bull can fetch twice than amount. So the headman can but a couple of cows just from the entrance fees from our group.

In the hot sun the plaster hardens into a hard and brittle whitish-colored material. On the roofs they sometimes put thatching to make the interior cooler. We were invited to enter a typical house, which had a circumference of around 20-30’. In it were three small rooms and a kitchen. In one of the other huts was the elementary school, where children were being taught reading and writing. The teacher asked us to send her pens and children’s books. Many of us promised, but I don’t know how many followed up.

Cow dung is everywhere. The fresh product is used as a building material component. Otherwise, this material is collected and dried in the sun before being used in the village. The dried cow dung is used as fuel, as mortar in the buildings or spread out on the ground as cover.

The next stop was a visit to the village blacksmith, a Very Important Person in the hierarchy in the village.

As befitting the surroundings, his workplace was in the open air under a tree, but his area was enclosed by thorny hedges. We did buy a spear from him for KS 500, but I don’t even know where it is now.

left: Tourists shopping in the village blacksmith’s chantière and showroom.

Well, after having spent so much money there, the Samburu reciprocated by performing for us by singing and dancing. It was getting hot, but we managed to stay in the shade as we watched. The Samburu men and women wear beads and hairpieces before they marry. After they get hitched, these decorations become superfluous, and the adornments become much simpler.

In dancing, the Samburu men are especially good at the vertical jump.

right: Samburu men showing off their dancing and tremendous vertical jumping prowess. The 2nd guy from the right has just elevated himself. At the highest point he may be 3-4’ of the ground.

They demonstrated fire-making by rubbing one hard and one soft stick against each other and using cow dung as the fuel. Cow dung is indeed the universal product of the area. I don’t think they export it, though, because I don’t remember the American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM, ever having written a standard for it.

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Another game drive in the afternoon, during which time we saw lots of helmeted quails and dik-diks scurrying around. A cheetah and two of her young shot by us. We saw them again later, after they had killed a hartebeest for food.

left: Helmeted quails

There were two Beisa oryx fighting for hegemony over a group of females. And in the distance we saw a group of reticulated giraffes chomping at the leaves high up.

There was a leopard in a tree looking disdainfully at us

right: Leopard in the tree.

In the evening the staff of the lodge hung a dead rabbit about 6’ above the ground in a tree to attract a leopard as dusk. He came, as planned, and swiftly removed the rabbit, before disappearing in the dusk. And in the tree overlooking our compound was a huge horned owl, looking disdainfully at the spurious activities of the human race below. Also coming to visit us was a huge crocodile lumbering out from the river onto the shore and then to the camp. He couldn’t get to the tourists, though, because of a sturdy fence in between.

The staff throws his a chicken or so, and that is why he comes back. But just to be sure we were told to stay on the inside of the sturdy fence. The staff doesn’t want to lose too many tourists.

left.: The resident croc paying us a visit. The staff always throws him something to eat.

This croc looks happy. He also looks overweight. Camp food is very fattening.

There were also some very interesting trees in the park. The acacia tree is probably the most prevalent species around.

This one is a bit unusual because of the large number of weaver nests hanging from the branches. The weaver bird makes these nests to deposit their eggs away from snakes.

right: An acacia tree full of nests of weaver birds

Then there is this tree with cucumber-like fruits. These fruits are harvested and fermented to make a very potent drink.